If variety is the spice of life then life over the last few weeks has been at jalapeño levels. Moscow - St Petersburg – London – LA - Las Vegas - LA – London. Finally coming to land in my garden in Kent by helicopter, (I will expand on that later).
Following very brief visits to Moscow and St Petersburg it was back to London for a flying visit then over to LA for a meeting. Our shop on Rodeo Dr was in the middle of installing the next show; a collaboration between celebrity stylist David Thomas and Brit musician/artist; Will Blanchard. The pieces are very large boxes in which there are celebrities names depicted in neon, mannequins dressed in the actual outfits that David dressed that celebrity in and the occasion where they were worn. The glass front has a sweet spot indicated along with the words; “In Emergency Break Glass”. This will also be the name of the installation.
From LA it was over the desert to Vegas to help set up our very large booth as part of the Couture jewellery show held in the very fancy Wynn Hotel and Casino. After a couple of days it was apparent that the mood was buoyant amongst the retailers and after several lean years this was a welcome change. Earlier in the year a group called Zultanite had approached me to work with a newly mined stone coincidently called Zutanite. The stone has a natural colour change depending on the light source, in the daylight it’s a leafy green and indoors a pinky/brown. Always up for something new I agreed to design and make a collection incorporating this phenomenal newcomer.
With a name like a superhero I felt that the unveiling of our Zultanite could not take place in a counter at a trade show, no this has to be a fuss like most things we do. We hired the hottest Las Vegas nightclub; Haze (could have been named for us), brought the excellent rock trio; The Band of Skulls over from England and threw the best party in Vegas that night. That’s the way to launch a million dollar suite of jewellery featuring Zultanite.
After a week in Vegas most folk would vegetate for a bit. We’re not most people so we flew back to LA for the party to launch the new instillation in our LA store. These events have become so cool we’re having trouble keeping the numbers in check, almost everyone invited actually comes. So 350 people passed through (most stayed till the end) and enjoyed the booze, art, jewellery and excellent music from Brit, DJ David Hume.
The next day, flew back to London, landed at 4pm, changed at the airport and made it to Goldsmiths Hall to give a talk at 6pm as part of London Jewellery Week. So far so good - the adrenalin had kicked in a long time ago. The following day, wearing my posh Garrard hat we launched to the press the $200k each bottles that we had designed and made for the Royal Salute Tribute to Honour whisky of which only 21 exist. Obviously with such a small quantity of product; the folk at Chivas Regal wanted to make a big deal about it. Day started with lunch at the Ritz with 50 international press which included a tale about the Scottish Honours (these being the equivalent of the crown jewels). The delivery was such that one could sense a little north south divide still lingering in there. After lunch, unveiled the amazing bejewelled bottles of scotch, gave a little speech about craftsmanship and carried out 3 hours of interviews.
With my tour of duty now over, I headed to Battersea heliport boarded the chopper with my eldest daughter Amy and headed toward the blue skies of Kent. The pilot thought he would be fine to land in the garden but a strong wind lead to plan B; he just landed on the strip of National Trust Land between mine and the White Cliffs. The commotion certainly had the net curtains of St Margaret’s twitching. Whatever are the Webster’s up to now? The question on everyone’s lips. If only they knew the half of it!
TTFN
